Digitizing Art Collections

Art is going online, not just through virtual auctions, but also through online museum portals. It begs the question: If major museums around the world are digitizing their collections, should a private collector do likewise? What are the potential costs and benefits of doing so?

To answer such questions, first a little history. The fear of creating replicas of art, as explained in Walter Benjamin’s 1935 essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” is that copies sap the aura and mystery around the original.

That view has proven remarkably resilient over time. Until recently, the world’s best museums held high-quality digital images close to their chest, reinforcing the notion that viewing originals on a wall is far superior to looking at them on a computer screen. The museum director’s concern, of course, was that by giving images away for free online, he or she would cannibalize attendance at their museum.

Jim Cuno, CEO of the Getty, tells Penta we are witnessing something akin to the institution-wide movement unleashed when the digital wave hit the music industry in the 1990’s. “When MP3s first came out, the common belief was that people would stop going to concerts, but people still go. There is every indication that [digital images] will increase appetites for the real thing,” he said.

While most agree it’s still too early to definitively argue digital reproductions on the Web can actually drive museum foot-traffic, the images are certainly getting eye-play. According to the Getty, web visits rose 15% to over 9 million last year, from 7.8 million in 2012. Physical visits to the Getty Center and Villa similarly rose to 1.7 million last year, up 8% from the 1.6 million who clocked in during 2012.

Chicago Albumen Works is a leader in digital archiving of works on paper, and has worked with the likes of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, and the Rockefeller Archive Center. CEO Doug Munson declined giving specifics on the firm’s past and current projects, citing privacy, but encourages individuals to similarly consider the value of digitization, especially when it comes to private collections in family hands.

“Families that have approached us for digitization had private collections that have been passed down from the 19th and 20th century, and now there are three generations of people who are interested.” These families, Munson said, subsequently used digital images to create facsimile albums, scrapbooks and reproductions. “In addition, private collectors can enhance the value of their collections before a donation is made, to relieve the museums or historical societies of digitizing expenses,” he said.

In other words, increase awareness of your private collection, through making digital images available to the public, and the value of your collection should rise. Working exclusively with flat objects, particularly photographs, Housatonic, Mass.-based Albumen Works takes pride in working under the rules of museum-quality conservation. Munson said that the ubiquity of scanners has been an unfortunate fact for digitization. “It feels like you can push a button and that photo is magically on-screen,” Munson says. Furthermore, digitization a decade ago was inferior, mostly because industry standards hadn’t yet been developed.

While every firm’s methodology differs, the ones that aim to create archival-quality digital files adhere to standards put together by the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative, says Eric Philcox, founder of Pixel Acuity. This Maitland, Florida-based firm offers digitization services for fine-art collections – including paintings, decorative objects and sculptures– and like Albumen Works digitizes under these more stringent conditions. That means producing high-resolution files suitable for the size of the image, using specialized cameras that provide color accuracy, luminosity, a high input of ppi or pixels per inch, metadata and other photo metrics.

Costs? Most firms provide project quotes instead of charging a flat rate, due to the number of variables involved in each job, but the base rate per capture for 18-inch by 24-inch to 24-inch by 36-inch works would cost about $175. Artworks larger than that could require more than one shot. Single-snap jobs for insurance and bureaucratic purposes cost less, and multi-step processes for fine-art collections that require resolution specifications, on-site work, travel to storage facilities and art handlers, logically tend to cost more. Upshot: If you have a collection of 2,000 works, figure on roughly $190,000 or approximately $95 each piece, to turn it into a digital archive.

Once the digitization process is complete, fine-art printing firms can turn image files into beautiful books and, even, tapestries or wallpaper. PhotoBook Press, which gets most of its business from wedding album printing, also prints fine-art coffee table books, now its second largest contributor to sales. The average 120-page hardcover sewn book with leather covers and foil stampings costs around $316, and $5,000 for 20 additional copies. Softcover glued books cost about half that, with the designed covers costing extra.

Iolabs, an all-in-one firm that also offers digital capture services, is known for its avant-garde approach to printing. The firm has a variety of traditional printing mediums like paper and canvas but also prints on textiles, such as Belgian linen, denim and habotai, a 100% Chinese silk. In addition, the six-person boutique can print up wallpapers and has metal- and wood-workers on hand to handcraft customized frames. Again, printing prices are quote-based, but 24-by-36-inch jobs on premium archival etching paper will go for about $160, costing 10% to 15% more for canvas and some 20% more for special cloth prints.

Digitizing your collection is not just a means to privately share the family wealth with far-flung relatives, it can be, if done well, a cost-effective way to raise the profile of your little-known private collection with a wider audience – and increase the collection’s value. If you want to see how creating a photoarchive of an art collection helped one family in unexpected ways, read Penta’s recent story on the Frick Collection’s underappreciated library and photoarchive.

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There are 2 comments

FEBRUARY 12, 2014 3:54 P.M.

Jerry M. wrote:

Crystal, just a few points that a copyeditor would have caught:
The National Gallery of Art is in Washington, not London.
"Begs the question" means the conclusion isn't supported by the premises, not "suggests a question from these facts."
"Albumen Works digitizes under these more stringent" specifications not "conditions."
Otherwise it is a good story.

FEBRUARY 14, 2014 2:25 P.M.

Tiredofflippingthebill wrote:

There is a National Gallery in London. Is that the museum being referred to?

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Written with Barron’s wit and often contrarian perspective, Penta provides the affluent with advice on how to navigate the world of wealth management, how to make savvy acquisitions ranging from vintage watches to second homes, and how to smartly manage family dynamics.

Richard C. Morais, Penta’s editor, was Forbes magazine’s longest serving foreign correspondent, has won multiple Business Journalist Of The Year Awards, and is the author of two novels: The Hundred-Foot Journey and Buddhaland, Brooklyn. Robert Milburn is Penta’s reporter, both online and for the quarterly magazine. He reviews everything from family office regulations to obscure jazz recordings.